This is not a book about Iraq's history or an inventory of the many Middle Eastern wars that have consumed the nation over the past several decades. This is the tale of a people who once lived under the rule of a megalomaniacal leader who shaped the state in his own image; a people who watched a foreign army invade, topple that leader, demolish the state, and then invent a new country; who experienced the horror of having their home fragmented into a hundred different cities.
Offers not simply an account of Iraq’s troubles but a powerful and beautifully written portrait of the soul and psychology of a nation reeling from one cataclysm to the next ... Mr. Abdul-Ahad delicately evokes the fears and hopes of a nation eager to be rid of Saddam but fearful of the consequences ... Early in the book, images of violence are visceral and shocking ... There is a challenge and a steely optimism there, one that would have rattled my confidence back in 2007, but that gives me hope in 2023.
Abdul-Ahad has written an astonishing book. To read A Stranger in Your Own City is virtually to live through the past 40 wretched years of Iraq’s history ... His descriptions are vivid and humorous.
An engaging blend of memoir, reportage and interviews. It is a story of catastrophic societal breakdown ... Interviews shed light on the personal motivations of ordinary Iraqis who participated in sectarian terrorism ... The book is a bracing read, punctuated by accounts of violence, torture and extortion.
